The core competency here is in terms of facilitating relationships and communications between different parties. There are in fact many different types of interactions that this role takes on. In as such, this means they participate as a part of many different role-interaction patterns. This is significant since when such patterns are frequent and repeated, it becomes almost transactional, and therefore measurable. If you need the example of a more common role-interaction pattern: think of a support call from initial contact to completion after a solution or resolution has been reached and the customer is verified as satisfied. Each such complete interaction has a measurable value; or you could also measure it in terms of cost or time it took to conduct that interaction end-to-end. Finally, you could also measure it in terms of quantity of those interactions actually reaching completion rather than partial or incomplete resolutions (likely meaning an unhappy customer left hanging).

The RI patterns for Community managers are of a different sort but the following tables give some suggestions of the kinds of patterns they could participate in.

Table 9.1 -- The Value of Community Managers

Direction

Value

To members

Improving relationships with members by providing a human face
to an organization or a large social group

Bringing the value of their own relationships and contact
networks within the organization

Arbitrating conflicts between members, or between the member and the
sponsoring organization

Coordinating member projects and activities

Serving as a repository of situational knowledge about the
organization, the members, or the content

To the sponsoring organization

Serving as an organizational spokesperson to the membership

Providing a view into the climate
of the members about the topic or purpose (the business climate within the
enterprise, across business partners, or across the industry)

Housing a repository of situational
knowledge about members, the content, or the topic

Encouraging and monitoring
member involvement and participation in the topics that
interest the sponsor